


Rebirth

by guineamania



Series: Rebirth [2]
Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: M/M, Post-Season/Series 01, Slow Burn, finding matt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 04:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11913327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineamania/pseuds/guineamania
Summary: Danny refuses to admit that Matt is gone and his body lost. The guilt tears through him that he can't even bury his new friend. That is until there is word on the streets that a body was pulled from the wreckage and the revelation sends Danny on a one man mission.





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> I had to write this as soon as Defenders came out and got a little helping hand from a 1MW August Rush prompt  
> Probably going to continue this :)

“Don’t, please don’t,” the thug Danny had pinned against a wall sobbed as the yellow glow illuminated his face.

“A friend of yours told me that you were spreading rumours about Daredevil,” Danny practically snarled. It had been four months and Danny was still honouring his promise to the late vigilante by protecting New York and more specifically Hell’s Kitchen in his memory. The tails of his yellow mask whipped in the wind, serving as another reminder of all he had lost. When the Iron Fist chose to take on Daredevil’s mantle, he decided he needed a costume to separate Rand Enterprises from his nightly exploits. The yellow mask was reminiscing of the scarf Matt had been wearing when they first met and the green jogging bottoms gave him enough motion to move and kick. Danny knew that Matt would berate him for not wearing more protection the same way they always teased his outfit.

“I just, I just heard from a guy that he saw someone drag a body out of the rubble. The body was dressed in red,” the guy stammered and Danny’s hand tightened around the man’s neck. “And he said that they took the body to some sort of church. I don’t know any more I swear!” the man was discarded and knocked out with a quick kick to the head. The police would find him soon enough. This didn’t mean Matt was alive, Danny didn’t think anyone could survive the blast and the crush of the debris. But it did plant questions in his head. They had hunted for the body but it was so deep they never thought it would be found; somebody had found it and removed it without telling his loved ones. It was time to find this church.

 

Alias Investigations was thriving and Jess could not work out if that was a good thing or not. It meant she could pay the bills but it meant she had to deal with people and people were irritating. One of those irritating people was Danny Rand. His guilt made her feel guilty. If she was interested in psychoanalysing him then she would say that having the weight of a world on his shoulders from a young age and never having time to grow up had caused Danny to believe that all the wrongs in the world were his fault. The largest of these wrongs was Matt’s death. Despite knowing each other less than a week Matt and Danny had bonded over their fight with the Hand; the Hand had ruined Matt’s life on so many occasions and despite his ferocious claims that he wasn’t part of the fight, he was. Luke and Jess had just been dragged along for the ride but that was Matt and Danny’s fight; and Matt died finishing it. “You know Matt can’t be alive Danny,” Jess sighed as the hyperactive vigilante paced the carpet in front of her desk.

“Yes, but why would some people retrieve his body and take it to a church if there wasn’t something else going on?” Danny continued to exclaim agitatedly.

“His death is not on you Danny. It was his choice and you are doing exactly what he wanted you to, protecting his city,” Jess tried to console him but it wasn’t working. “I’ll do it on my own if you won’t help me. I, I don’t know how to find people like you do but I’ll do it,” Danny stammered before trying to storm out of there but he still carefully shut the door behind him. Jess sighed and took a swig from her flask; Danny was like a child and she wasn’t paid to be a babysitter.

 

Danny went alone. When they were all sat around in that Chinese restaurant he hadn’t thought that he would have to go alone again. But he needed to save Matt or liberate Matt’s body from whoever had it. Tearing his way through the criminal underbelly of Hell’s Kitchen, Danny finally found which church Matt was taken too. It was actually a nunnery and orphanage; St Agnes’ Orphanage. The internet did truly have everything these days and Danny could easily find the address and an interesting fact too. That was where Matt was sent when his father died; the young Matt Murdock was the hero of Hell’s Kitchen even before he put on a mask so the press followed his life until he went to Colombia to be a lawyer. Danny had so many questions but they could only be answered by going to this orphanage. Luke’s attempt to get him to understand what the Rand name meant had backfired when he was nearly killed by Alexandra, but it did give him a bit more of an understanding of what his money could do. He could go in to this orphanage as Iron Fist and fight like he knows how to; or he could go in as Danny Rand and make a large donation for the upkeep of the orphanage, being an orphan himself. Some part of him felt bad using these children to get himself in the door but he did care and the donation was genuine. “Mr Rand, we are delighted to see you here,” a sister opened the door and eagerly embraced his hand. On first look she was warm, older than expected but looked caring.

“Lovely to be here,” he shook her hand and followed her inside. “My name is Sister Maggie and I’ll be showing you around today. The children are out playing so I will show you inside before they hear there is a celebrity in the building,” Maggie explained as they walked through the building.

“You’re too kind,” Danny laughed, nervously straightening his tie. The building was old and Danny smiled slightly thinking that this would still be very similar to the building that Matt had grown up in. “I just wanted to see what it was my money was going towards,” Danny nodded, taking everything in and looking for any signs that there was something wrong.

“As you can see there is a lot of maintenance work that needs doing. The entire west wing is under renovation but when that is done your donation will go towards furnishing it so we can take on more children who need our help,” Maggie explained, just gesturing towards the cordoned off area they were walking past. The west wing, a perfect place to hide whatever was going on here; he would have to come back as the Iron Fist to investigate.

“It is amazing what you do here. As you know I am an orphan myself and a great friend of mine actually grew up here. Matthew Murdock, do you know him?” Danny asked, trying to pass it off at as general enquiry. He got the response he was looking for; Maggie almost stumbled and paled looking at Danny like he was the Iron Fist and threatening her life.

“Matty, yes. He was a courageous boy even without his sight; such a shame what happened to him,” she stammered out.

“Yes, his death was a loss for us all. And his body is missing as well, I would have liked to have him buried with his dad,” Danny continued to probe.

“God finds a way Mr Rand, and I am sure Mr Murdock would rather your money went towards helping god’s work than a futile attempt to reclaim the body that used to be his,” Maggie was clearly hiding something and trying to keep Danny away from the subject of Matthew Michael Murdock. As expected the children of the orphanage were delighted to meet ‘the’ Danny Rand of Rand Enterprises especially when he was going to be buying them new toys. They all seemed happy, from what Danny could see, despite some of them being shier than the rest. Danny found himself sat in the grass in the garden with two girls showing him their toys. Even in this harmless situation, Danny could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, someone was watching him. Slowly Danny turned around and looked back at the nunnery, trying to mask the action as cracking his neck, and he spotted a figure watching them from a window on the second floor. Recalling the map he had been drawing as he got the tour, that room was in the closed off west wing. There was something wrong here and Danny was going to get to the bottom of it.

“Mr Rand, do you want to come to the park?” Ella, one of the little girls he had been playing with asked politely as the other sisters were herding children towards the gate.

“I’m afraid I have to get back to work but it has been lovely meeting you,” Danny smiled and the girl blushed before running off to join the rest of the group. By the time Danny turned back around the figure was gone.

 

That night Danny returned to the orphanage, this time in a mask and with his fist at the ready. He was not leaving there without answers and they would probably be found by starting in the closed west wing. Danny did have to admit that that area was run down, as he levered open one of the windows and slid inside. The floorboards groaned as Danny dropped down onto them and the wind whistled through the gaps in walls and doors. Inching forwards, testing each board as he stepped, Danny tried to listen out for any movement but nothing was drawing his attention. In the whole area only one door was locked, it was suspicious that a door would be locked in an area that was supposedly off limits. However, before Danny could break open the door, footsteps echoed behind him and the door to the off-limits area was torn open. Sister Maggie was staring at him, stunned. “You, you can’t be in here,” she stammered pointing the torch, and the shotgun, in her hands directly at Danny. Danny lowered his hands and stepped away from the now open door. “I have protected this orphanage from looters, aliens and mafia thugs. You do not want to test me boy, leave and no more will be said,” she continued, the shotgun cocked.

“I want to know what you are hiding here ma’am,” Danny stated, lowering his voice so she did not match it with Danny Rand.

“We are not hiding anything, the cash is taken off premises overnight. There is nothing here for you,” her voice stuttered as Danny’s hand began to illuminate.

“Matthew Murdock’s body was delivered here. Tell me what you have done to him,” Danny growled, stepping even closer.

“I, I, please don’t do anything. There are children here,” Sister Maggie pleaded with him. Danny would do anything to her, but she didn’t know that.

“Danny, stop,” Danny’s heart stopped at the voice, he turned slowly and saw a face he never thought he would again. Matt was stood in the doorway; the door was in one hand and a cane in the other holding up his slim form. Matt had never been bulky but all the fat had dropped from his chest leaving just muscle behind. Bandages and bruises covered every inch of his exposed torso and there was a weariness in how he held himself.

“Matt,” Danny gasped, the light dropping from his hand.

“Maggie its okay, he’s a friend,” Matt smiled softly, and stepped out of the way of the door he was blocking. Sister Maggie nodded and lowered the gun.

“Shout if you need anything Matthew, I’ll leave you two to catch up,” she stated bluntly, eying Danny with distrust but leaving the two to speak.

 

Danny followed Matt’s cautious steps into the room he had exited from. A bed took up most of the space in the small area but Matt’s daredevil suit was folded up in the corner with a pair of glasses like the ones he always wore and a cane on the table next to it. “Please, take a seat,” Matt nodded to the bed before resting himself on the table.

“You’re alive,” Danny blurted out as soon as he sat down.

“Yes and I would prefer if that stays between us,” Matt sighed, one had wrapping around his pained midsection.

“We all mourned you Matt, you died saving the city and it broke everyone’s hearts. Why are you just hiding away in your childhood home?” Danny asked, pulling his mask off to face Matt fully.

“When Sister Maggie found me I was on the verge of death, they pulled the suit off me and realised there was no way to take me to the hospital. While you were all mourning, I was dying. I woke up weeks after the funeral,” Matt explained, but Danny still didn’t understand.

“Then you could have come back, we would have taken you back,” he continued to push but Matt remained stoically calm.

“I had no one Danny. I was ready to die saving my love. Elektra, the first time she died it was all my fault, and the second time but this time she is free from it all. I was dragging Foggy and Karen down, Stick died for his stupid fight,” Matt choked out, tears welling up in his eyes. “And the team didn’t need me. You all have powers and are good people. I am the devil Danny, I wanted to die for something,” Danny didn’t know what to say. He had known Matt was crazy for wanting to stay and help Elektra but he always held out some home that Matt had a plan to get out. Knowing that the more experienced vigilante had planned to die was crushing his heart.

“I never stopped looking. I helped look after New York, particularly Hell’s Kitchen, for you but we never stopped looking. Foggy and Karen helped, and the Punisher guy and Jess for a while but I think it got too much for her,” Danny rambled until Matt let out a pained laugh.

“You are certainly stubborn,” he chuckled. “This is a time for me to reinvent myself. I probably will come back but I need time, I only got out of bed a couple of weeks ago,” Matt explained, the cane clunking against the hard wood table.

“So come back as Matt, we can say that you lost your memory in the collapse and only just remembered who you are. Daredevil can stay dead until you are ready. Um, I paid your rent for you so you still have an apartment,” Danny admitted with a blush he was glad Matt couldn’t see. “I need time Danny, I just ask that you give me that,” Matt asked and as Danny was quickly finding, he would give Matt anything he asked.


End file.
